The Many Troubles of Khary
by kuasimodo28
Summary: Lord Khardeen of Scelt has always been in love with Morghann, his future Queen. But she hasn't the faintest idea of it. Whatever is a Warlord to do? Hmmm...maybe Lucivar might have a hint or two?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: As much as I'd love to lay claim to the lovely characters in the **

**Story, I don't own any of 'em. Just so we're clear**

_A/N: This story is written for and dedicated to my beautiful and wonderful beta Svadilfari. Mel, thanks for being such a darling to me. Love you loads. ___

**Chapter 1**

"Khardeen, you are the most annoying, pig-headed, stubborn male I have ever known!" Morghann yelled in frustration.

"Uh-oh, she used your whole first name," Aaron whispered. "You are in trouble."

"That might be true, beautiful Morghann," Khary said, bowing floridly. "But you love me anyway," he tried an unsure-but-game smile, 'borrowed' shamelessly from Jaenelle, only to have Morghann's scowl deepen before she flounced off, followed by Karla.

"And this is why I don't like males," Karla announced, loud enough for the men to hear. "They never do what they're supposed to."

"What are we?" Aaron sputtered. "Puppies?"

Both women stopped, turned, stared. "Of course not," Karla said, amazed.

"Thank you," Aaron began, but Karla continued on as if he hadn't spoken. "The puppies at least can be forgiven for the many _many_ mistakes they make, such as not being able to hold their bladder, or chasing the chickens. You men, on the other hand…,"

"Come on Karla," Morghann said coldly. "There's no point talking to these…_males_." She glowered at Khardeen and left.

"What did you do?" Aaron asked Khardeen when the women were out of sight.

"Nothing!" Khary protested.

"Really?" Aaron's eyebrows rose. Khardeen looked away, mumbling something.

"What was that? I didn't quite catch that."

"I said I didn't think that ladies should curse so much."

"Ah."

"Maybe I should keep my thoughts to myself in the future?" Khary ventured quietly.

"Maybe you should, my friend." Aaron slung a companionable arm around Khary's slumped shoulders. "And maybe you need to talk to an expert on women."

Khary snorted. "Who, you?"

Aaron rolled his eyes. "I've got myself a beautiful woman, remember?" He tightened his hold on Khary's shoulder. "But, I was referring to someone with years of experience handling Jaenelle, and therefore somebody who knows the way the rest of the coven thinks."

"Lucivar?"

Aaron sighed, frustrated. "No, you fool. Uncle Saetan."

Khary bristled. Who was Aaron calling a fool? Then the words registered. "Oh. That's a good idea," he conceded grudgingly.

"Of course it is," Aaron said, giving Khardeen a push toward the study. "Good luck."

*****************************************************

Saetan SaDiablo, Prince of Darkness, High Lord of Hell, the High Priest of the Hourglass, sighed inwardly and wondered when his reputation as a fearsome Warlord Prince had been ruined. Now, he had people coming in and out of his study at all hours. And if he locked it, the coven just walked in through the wood. No guesses who they'd learned _that_ from. It was infuriating. It was frustrating. He had no peace.

He loved it.

But that didn't mean he couldn't give Khary a hard time.

Now he sat at his desk, watching Khardeen's slumped shoulders and dejected expression.

"I'm afraid I don't understand what the problem is, Warlord," he said, fingers steepled under his chin. "At least, I don't understand why you had to come into my study, which was closed for a reason, for something that doesn't seem like a big problem to me."

Khary's head snapped up, his expression shocked. "But you told us we could come to you for anything!"

"Yes, I did. But I didn't expect it to be for something as small as this."

"Uncle Saetan, please," he pleaded. "It's – she's driving me crazy. I can't eat. I can't sleep. I need your help."

After one look at his woebegone expression, Saetan gave up the game. He sighed, and leaned forward. "What you need to do, puppy, is woo her."

"Woo her?" Khary asked, blankly. "How?"

"Walk with her, talk to her, give her flowers, little gifts that don't have to cost much but have sentimental value, or something you know she's been wanting. You'll get points for paying attention."

Khary's brow furrowed. "I understand the gifts part, but I already talk to her and walk with her."

"Yes, but you do it as a friend. Now do it as a man." He leaned back, and picked up his pen, looking pointedly at the door. Getting the message, Khary rose. "Thank you, Uncle Saetan."

When he was at the door, Saetan called him. "Lord Khardeen?"

"Yes?"

"Be who you are. Don't try to be someone else." He paused. "On the other hand, maybe you should keep your jokes to a minimum."

"But they're funny," he protested.

"To you maybe."

"Fine," he muttered, stepping out of the room.

"Oh, and Khary?"

"Yes, Uncle Saetan?"

"Good luck."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"You know he's been very strange lately."

"Who, Ladvarian?" Jaenelle asked, picking up the squirming puppy.

Ladvarian whined. *_Why am I strange, Jaenelle?* _he asked dejectedly.

"Not Ladvarian," Morghann laughed, crouching down to play with him. "Khardeen!"

"I don't understand what you're worried about then," Jaenelle grinned.

"I'm serious," Morghann protested, laughing. "Look," she held out her arm. The crystal bracelet on her wrist shimmered and sparkled.

"That's beautiful," Jaenelle said, studying it.

"That's what I said when I first saw it at the stall. This old man was selling some pretty trinkets, and this one caught my eye. I was going to buy it, but I hadn't taken enough money so I told him I'd go back the next day. But when I came home, this was lying on my dresser."

"How did it get there?" Jaenelle asked, leaning forward.

Morghann mirrored her position. "Khardeen," she whispered. "But the thing is, he was talking to someone else, and I didn't think he noticed. But it was him. Because with the bracelet was a note." She blushed. "A very nice note, actually."

Jaenelle hid a smile.

"And the other day," Morghann went on breathlessly, "we were walking in the gardens, and he just plucked a flower and gave it to me. It was so unexpected. And…sweet."

"Morghann," Jaenelle said, her smile widening, "have you ever thought that maybe, Khary is trying to tell you something. But not in words?"

"What do you mean?"

Jaenelle stood up, holding the now sleeping Ladvarian tenderly. "Think about it." She left, the smile still on her face. Halfway to the dining room, she stopped, debated to herself and went back up the hallway to her father's study.

She twisted the knob, found it locked, shrugged, and walked through the wall. "Papa," she was already scolding as her body emerged through the wood, "why do you insist on locking the door when you know we can all just walk in anyway?"

Saetan sighed, a long suffering sigh and looked up at the daughter of his soul. "Maybe because I was hoping it would be symbolic. Locked door means leave me alone."

"Somebody's in a bad mood," she chided.

"You would be too," he muttered, "if you had -"

"- Khardeen coming in all the time to get advice and report on his success and failures?" she finished.

He tensed. "What?" he asked, warily.

"C'mon Papa, how else would Khary know what to do to win Morghann over?"

He sighed.

"All right, yes," he admitted. "I did give the young pup some advice. We couldn't have him being desperate enough to ask Lucivar, could we?" he said dryly.

Jaenelle shuddered. "Can you imagine?"

Saetan looked pained. "I try not to."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Khary paced the floor nervously. "Where is she?" he asked no one in particular. "She should be here by now."

"The Offering to the Darkness cannot be rushed," Tersa said, in one of her lucid moments.

"But she should be done by now," Khary insisted.

"It will be done when it will be done," Tersa said serenely, continuing to arrange sticks into a rickety tower.

Khary clenched his fists and resumed pacing.

"You know," Lucivar said, playing with the wolf cub on the sofa. "You're going to wear a hole in the carpet. Why don't you have some of those sandwiches that Mrs. Beale prepared? And while you're over there," he added with a wicked grin, "get me some too, would you?"

Khardeen hissed, completely forgetting that Lucivar was the strongest Warlord Prince in the room.

Not taking offence, Lucivar's grin only widened. "Or, we could do a bit of sparring," he suggested.

Khary's fingers clenched. His shoulders bunched, preparing to leap at Lucivar. There was a tense silence as even Lucivar understood how far on the edge Khary was, feeling the Warlord Prince in himself rise to the edge in response.

A crash followed by a loud sigh snapped them both out of their rage. Turning their heads towards the sound, both Khary's and Lucivar's temper eased, and then vanished when they saw both Tersa and Jaenelle staring at them accusingly.

"Now see what you've done," Jaenelle complained.

"We will have to start again," Tersa sighed.

Both males exchanged a baffled look. ""What did we do?" Khary whispered.

"I think we'd better not ask," Lucivar responded. Each gave Jaenelle and Tersa and unsure-but-game smile, which only made Jaenelle's scowl deepen.

"Karla was right," she muttered to herself. "Males are so _obtuse_."

"Of course they are, darling," Morghann said from the doorway. "But that's why we love them."

"Morghann!" Khary exclaimed in relief, rushing to her side. "How are you?" he asked softly.

There were shadows under her eyes, and she swayed where she stood, but the smile she gave him was blinding. "I'm wonderful," she said. "I'm a Dark-Jewelled Queen." She opened her hand to show the Green uncut Jewels that she had been cradling.

He pulled her close and held on tight. "I knew you would do it," he whispered against her hair. She pulled back, mouth opened to say something, but the look in his eyes made her pause. It was a look she had occasionally glimpsed fleetingly, to be replaced by a smile when he realised she noticed.

Now he didn't. Morghann felt her heart begin to pound, hard and slow. Her head whirled with questions, wishes and desires. "Khary," she whispered, her eyes dropping unconsciously to his lips. Taking that as an invitation, he lowered his mouth.

A loud crash and a curse had them springing guiltily apart. Lucivar was sprawled on the floor, having tripped over the table leg. Tersa was looking woefully at what had been her tower, and Jaenelle was biting her lip, trying and failing not to laugh.

"Cat!" Lucivar said menacingly, "you're going to pay for that."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Jaenelle said, but she was edging slowly out of the room. She smiled at Morghann. *_Congratulations, sister.*_

Lucivar narrowed his eyes, and jumped after her, only to smack into the wall Jaenelle had quickly backed through. Her laughter could be heard further down the hallway, leaving the room's occupants with no doubt where she was headed.

"Oh no you don't," Lucivar growled. "You do not get to tell him your side of the story first." He ran through the door, pausing briefly to capture Morghann in a bone crushing hug. "This doesn't mean you can skip training."

Morghann hissed at his retreating back. "I hope Uncle Saetan takes Jaenelle's side."

Khary hadn't let go of Morghann, his hand still clasping hers, even when Lucivar had snatched her up. He wasn't about to.

Tersa smiled at them both. "It's finished," she said gleefully, pointing at her tower of sticks.

Morghann turned to look. "What is it, Tersa?" she asked curiously.

Tersa stood up, impatiently pushing her tangled hair away from her face. "It's something that endures," she said mysteriously, walking out of the room, leaving Morghann and Khary staring awkwardly at each other, her hand still in his.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Morghann stared absently out the window. The rest of the coven was in the room, discussing Aaron and Kalush's upcoming wedding. Shy, sweet Kalush had just formed her own court at Nharkava, and had asked Aaron to be her Consort. He refused.

Kalush spent the next hour breaking every thing in her room, only stopping when Aaron bravely ventured in to clarify that he didn't want to be her Consort, but her husband. Whereupon which the door to the room flew shut with a bang and Kalush and Aaron didn't emerge for a good few hours.

Now the coven was discussing Aaron and the logistics of the ceremony, but Morghann was thinking about a different male altogether.

_When did I start having feelings for Khardeen?_ she wondered. It was as if the feelings had crept up on her, unnoticed. And now, she couldn't stop thinking about him and how he'd been acting with her lately. And the almost kiss the other day. She brought her hand up to her mouth, cheeks burning. What would it be like to kiss Khardeen? To feel his lips moving against hers, his arms around her?

"Morghann!" Karla's impatient voice alerted Morghann to the fact that this wasn't the first time Karla had called her. "What are you doing?" she asked her curiously. Her eyes narrowed. "You're blushing."

Her hands moved to her cheeks, which were growing hotter. "No, I'm not!" she protested. "It's just hot in here."

The rest of them looked at her strangely, and Karla opened her mouth to say something, but Jaenelle shot her a look and she kept quiet.

"I was just saying, Morghann," Kalush began, "that I won't be wearing white for the wedding. Instead, I'm going to wear blue." She blushed, and added quietly, "It's Aaron's favourite colour."

"It's not traditional," Morghann mused, then she grinned mishieviously. "But then, we've never been the traditional type, have we?"

*****************************************************

At the other end of the hall, Aaron and Khardeen were discussing the same thing. With one notable difference. "How did you do it, Aaron?" Khary asked seriously. "She was breaking everything in the room, and she wasn't using her hands. All Morghann has to do is is _look_ at me when she's angry, and I feel like a worm."

"Because I know she's worth it," Aaron said quietly. "But I learned one thing today. I hurt her badly, Khary. Although I didn't mean to, in that moment, I hurt her more than I ever thought possible. I never want to see that look in her eyes again."

"Aren't you afraid she'll hurt you?" Khary asked.

"Of course I am. But she's worth all the pain in the world. Don't you feel the same way about Morghann?"

"I do," Khary said, looking away. "I just wish she realised it," he muttered.

"If you want her to realise it, my friend, you'll have to tell her."

"Why is everyone talking about relationships?" Lucivar complained, walking into the room. "The women just accosted me with fabric samples for _your _wedding." He glared balefully at Aaron. "Do I look like I care?" he glared at Aaron and Khardeen.

They both wisely said nothing. Lucivar continued ranting, eventually winding down when he saw both men trying and failing not to grin.

He was quiet for a while, head cocked as if listening to something. Then he smirked. "I actually came in here to ask either of you if you wanted to train this afternoon. But," his smirk widened, "I think you're both about to be very busy." With that he left the room in a hurry. Khary and Aaron looked at each other. "What did he mean?" Khary asked, worriedly.

Before Aaron could answer, the unmistakable sound and scent of Queens entered the room. "Just the men we were looking for," Jaenelle said happily, brandishing a folder at them. "We need your opinions on these. Now," she said, sitting down between both the men (the rest of the women ranged themselves in front of the men, making it impossible to escape) and opening the folder to reveal fabric samples, "what do you think of these?"

_*Enjoy yourselves, gentlemen* _the physic signature was Lucivar's, Khary could have sworn it. Who else would sound so smug?

Both men heaved heavy sighs, and turned their attention to the folder in Jaenelle's hands.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Khary took a deep breath. "Morghann, I love you. I don't know if you've noticed, but I've loved you for a long time now. And I hope you love me too, or if you don't, give me a chance to make you love me."

"Oh Khardeen," the person in front of him twittered, the high falsetto contrasting oddly with the broad shoulders, "I'm so…_overwhelmed._"

"Aaron, you idiot," Khary growled. "Stop it."

"Why?" Aaron protested. "You said you wanted to practice, so I'm practicing her response."

"She's more likely to punch me in the gut," Khary scowled, running his hand through his hair restlessly.

"That's the spirit," Aaron said optimistically. He gave Khary's shoulder an encouraging pat. "C'mon old man, she's forming her court today. You need to be there."

With a sigh, Khary nodded his head. He was going to apply for the position of her Consort. He wasn't the only one, he knew. But he would be damned if she chose someone else over him.

Riding the Green Wind, he arrived in Scelt in under an hour and headed to the mansion. Entering the room where Morghann's grandmother had once ruled as Queen, he found it full of people he had grown up with, and in the center, Morghann, in all her glory as a Green-Jeweled Queen. He took his place and waited for the ceremony to start.

She stood regal, as she called out the names of the ones she had chosen to serve her. Steward, First Escort, Master of Guard, one by one, the individual she named knelt and swore fealty to her. She drew out a ceremonial knife, and drew a line on her palm, and offered the blood to all in her First Circle, in an ancient ritual of strengthening the bond between the Queen and the subject.

"Thank you all for coming," she finally said. "The ceremony is over, and I will officially begin my duties as Queen tomorrow. My grandmother and Steward will meet with me tomorrow morning to discuss the more urgent matters, and I will see the rest of you in the afternoon. For today, the court is adjourned."

"But Lady," someone protested as she was leaving the room, "you haven't chosen your Consort yet."

Was it his imagination or did her eyes flicker over him? "That's because I haven't chosen my Consort yet," she announced and left.

Khary ignored the murmur of conversation and hurried after her. Catching sight of her retreating back, he trailed after her silently into the gardens, watching as she sat down on a bench. Eyes closed, she tilted her face up toward the sun and took a deep breath. A small smile touched her lips. "I know you're there, Khary," she said, her eyes still closed.

Now he moved towards her hesitantly. "Would you mind some company?" he asked.

The smile still on her lips, she shook her head. "Of course not."

He sat beside her, wondering how to begin. Now that he was here, the carefully prepared declaration he'd painstakingly practiced and perfected flew out of his mind. He had no idea what to say. So he sat there, palms damp, heart stuttering.

After a long minute, she opened her eyes. "What is it Khardeen?" she asked, her green eyes looking directly at him.

"Morghann, there's something I have to tell you," he began, then fell silent. She waited for a few more minutes. "And?"

"Why haven't you picked a Consort?" he blurted out, then winced. That hadn't been what he'd been planning on saying.

Now her eyes narrowed. "Why do you want to know?"

Khary took a deep breath. _I can do it. This is Morghann. The woman I want to spend the rest of my life. I can do this._

"Khary?" she asked impatiently, an edge to her voice.

"I want to know because," he paused, then continued doggedly on, "because I want to be your Consort."

Shock registered on her face and she stared at him blankly for a long minute. "You want to be my Consort?" she asked. "Why?"

"Why not?"

"Answer me Lord Khardeen."

"Why would I ask to be your Consort?" he asked, frustrated, standing up. "Because I love you, Morghann. I've loved you all my life and I can't stand and watch you choose someone else to be your Consort, when I should be there, when you know I would do anything, give anything for you."

She tilted her head to her side and the smile that had faded came back in full bloom, with an amused edge to it. "What if I told you I've already chosen my Consort? That from the time I was mentally forming my Court, I knew who he'd be?"

He felt as if she'd staked him through the heart. So smoothly, so quickly that he hadn't seen it coming. Taking a shaky breath, he nodded once before straightening his shoulders. "Then I wish you all the best, my lady. And hope that I will always remain your friend." He turned to leave.

"Khary, where are you going?" she asked gripping his arm. "I'm not finished."

He closed his eyes against the fresh wave of pain. He wanted to scream, hit something, but not in front of her. "I was hoping that I would be excused to be alone, my Lady."

She huffed impatiently, and planted herself in front of him. "I'm not done," she repeated firmly. "So you just have to wait."

"Fine," he crossed his arms. He'd be damned if he let her have it easy after she shattered his heart.

"The reason I didn't announce my Consort today was because I realised I didn't want a Consort." She shot him a glare when he opened his mouth. Scowling, he shut it again. "I want a husband instead."

He goggled. But she still wasn't finished. "So I was thinking that I'd much rather have you as my husband instead of my Consort." She shrugged. "Mainly because a Consort can walk away after the contract ends, whereas if you were my husband, you're stuck for life. Not to mention that whole-" she didn't finish the sentence, because Khary's arms were around her, and Khary's lips were on hers, and it wasn't anything like her fantasies, but infinitely better. She got over her initial surprise and enthusiastically responded, throwing her arms around him.

"So," she said when their lips finally parted, "does that mean yes?"

"Only if you tell me why you want me to marry you."

She rolled her eyes. "Lord Khardeen, I love you. I don't know how long I've loved you, but I know that I will love you all my life, if you let me. Will you marry me?"

He grinned against her lips. "Yes. But only if you don't tell anyone that _you _proposed." Then, laughing, he kissed her again.


End file.
